Save Money When You Buy or Sell a House

There's a new company out there called Redfin which is shaking up the real estate industry that can save you a ton of money the next time you buy or sell a house.

Normally, when you sell a house, the realtor charges you a commission equal to 6% of the sales price. If the buyer has a realtor, the selling realtor will split his 6% with the buyer's realtor, so they each take 3%. With house prices as high as they've been many selling realtors will take 5% or even less, if you negotiate.

Redfin is much cheaper and better.

If you are selling your home, Redfin charges a flat fee of $4,000 ($3,000 if you agree to pay before your home sells (but not in California)), and will list your home in the MLS, on google, on Craigslist, and will put a sign in your front yard. You host home tours, and they handle scheduling the showings and the paperwork needed to sell your home. Because Redfin is a self-service seller, your home may not sell, and other Realtors may be hesitant to show your home if there is no commission to share.

However, if you are buying a home, Redfin is totally the way to go. Redfin will keep 1/3 of the 3% commission that the selling realtor gives them and will refund 2/3 of the 3% commission to you. That means you get 2% off the agreed price. You'll even get a Redin realtor to show you the houses that are for sale. Redfin's website is very powerful, and allows you to search MLS listings using a variety of options and see all matching homes on a map of the area.

Now, I haven't actually used Redfin, so I can't say whether the service is good or not, but they do offer a 100% satisfaction money-back guarantee.

http://www.redfin.com/

The Best Self-Help Legal Publisher

If you've ever wanted to do anything "legal," including:

. Starting a business
. Patenting an invention
. Changing your name
. Fighting a traffic ticket
. Preparing a contract or power of attorney.
. Renting property
. Learning your legal rights

you probably had no idea where to turn. Well, it turns out that there is a publishing company that specializes in publishing self-help legal books called "Nolo Press." San Francisco based Nolo has published self-help legal books since 1971, and they are affordably priced.

If you're interested, check out "Fight Your Ticket," "The Lawsuit Survival Guide", "Nolo's Deposition Handbook", and more at:




http://www.nolo.com/

The Best Credit Card

I present my choice for the best credit card:

Pentagon Federal Credit Union's Platinum Rewards Card.

This credit card offers 1.25% cash back on every purchase, and 5% cash-back on gasoline purchases. Unlike most credit cards which require you to call in and request your cash back or that give you cash back only once per year, Pentagon Federal CU automatically credits the cash back amount to your credit card every month.

Membership in PFCU is available to anyone who pays $20.00 to join the National Military Families Association. For more information, see http://www.penfed.org/

The Best News Magazine

I present my choice for the best news magazine:



The Economist

The Economist is a british news-magazine that is published weekly like U.S. News and Time. Unlike both of those magazines, The Economist is about twice as thick and filled with information for a world audience from all over the globe.

Free 411

Most phone companies charge $1.00 or more for directory assistance (411) service, but you can get it completely free.

There are currently two options for getting totally free 411 services.

The first is Google 411, which is provided by Google and presently has no advertising: 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411). The Google service does not have live operators to assist you, but it will connect you to your listing at the end of the call. Google's service uses Google's local business search database.

The second option is 1-800-FREE-411 (1-800-373-3411) which is also free but runs several advertisements before you can get your listing. Unlike Google, a live operator is available if you have trouble, but they will not connect your call.